Saturday, January 23, 2010

Our New Family.

Corynne. Tessa. Katie. Annie. Erin

When I first arrived in the Heathrow Airport in London I was terrified. When I finally found my group I was nervous that everyone would already know each other or not be friendly. I worked up the courage to introduce myself to some of the girls after about 5 minutes of sitting by myself. turns out they were some of the nicest kids on the planet.I don't think I could have asked for a better group of kids to travel Europe with. We bonded immediately. Already, I feel like I have known them forever.

I think that in life there are 3 situations that help people to get close to each other:1. Being vulnerable. Here we are in a foreign country, across the ocean, thousands of miles from home. I think from the beginning we all realized how much we needed each other. We quickly became friends and clung to one another for comfort. As our trip has gone on we have all had times where we were feeling homesick, scared or lonely, but we are always there for each other.2. Having a common interest. Obviously we are all interested in traveling, studying abroad, etc. this is something we all had in common to talk about which helped lead into other conversations that helped us to get to know each other.3. Missing home. We all miss home. Family, boyfriends, friends, everything that is familiar to us. It also helps that we are all Americans, that definitely brings a lot of comfort to know that someone can relate to you and the things you miss or the things that make you excited being here.

I honestly don't know what I would have done if I hadn't met my new friends. We were talking earlier about how if we hadn't met each other we would probably be on a plane right now flying back to the states. ha! I can't thank them enough for helping me to feel right at home here in the U.K. We have so many big plans for our next 4 months and I am super excited.